Genomic-Guided Conservation Actions to Restore the Most Endangered Conifer in the Mediterranean Basin.

Species with extremely small population sizes are critically endangered because of reduced genetic diversity, increased inbreeding and hybridisation threats. Genomic tools significantly advance conservation by revealing genetic insights into endangered species, notably in monitoring frameworks. Sicilian fir (Abies nebrodensis) is the most endangered conifer in Europe with only 30 adult trees in an 84-ha area.

Better soon than never: climate change induces strong phenological reassembly in the flowering of a Mediterranean shrub community.

● Flowering is a key process in the life cycle of a plant. Climate change is shifting flowering phenologies in the Northern Hemisphere, but studies with long data series at community level are scarce, and even more so those regarding the consequences of phenological changes for emerging ecological interactions. In the Mediterranean region, the effects of climate change are stronger than the global average and there is an urgent need to understand how biodiversity will be affected in this area.

Sexual dimorphism in the andromonoecious Euphorbia nicaeensis: effects of gender and inflorescence development.

Background And Aims: In andromonoecious taxa with separate floral types along the inflorescence, architectural or plastic effects can simulate floral sexual dimorphism. Both the primary and secondary sexual characteristics of the cyathia of the protogynous andromonoecious species Euphorbia nicaeensis were analysed according to their sex and arrangement on the inflorescence.

Methods: The production of male and hermaphrodite cyathia at each inflorescence level was surveyed in two natural populations.

The endophytic system of mediterranean Cytinus (cytinaceae) developing on five host Cistaceae species.

Background And Aims: One of the most extreme manifestations of parasitism is found in the genus Cytinus, a holoparasite whose vegetative body is reduced to an endophytic system living within its host root. There are two species of Cytinus in the Mediterranean, C. hypocistis and C.

Sex ratio and reproductive effort in the dioecious Juniperus communis subsp. alpina (Suter) Celak. (Cupressaceae) along an altitudinal gradient.

The hypothesis that reproductive cost differs between sexes was tested in Juniperus communis subsp. alpina along an altitudinal gradient. Sex ratio (male : female) increased significantly with elevation, and above 2,600 m it was significantly male-biased.